Essendon AFL player Sam Lonergan says whoever sent him threatening messages on Twitter following the Bombers’ game with Carlton clearly needs help.

Carlton midfielder Andrew Carrazzo suffered a fractured shoulder in a heavy tackle from Lonergan during the round-four match at the MCG on April 21.

Lonergan says it’s normal to attract public criticism at times, but not death threats.

“I was just more disappointed that someone could even think of those types of things that were said,” Lonergan told the club’s in-house TV program The Hangar on Wednesday.

“It turned from instant anger to ‘hang on a minute, there’s a person here that I don’t know, no one’s going to know, but clearly needs some sort of help’.

“For me, it didn’t really make sense that someone could come up with those type of words and put them in the same sentence.

“Some things that were said were, I’m sure if you’d seen it and you were a father, it would really rattle you, I guess. It upset quite a few people.

“For me, just passing it to the right people and dealing with it properly was the most important thing I could have done.”

AFL Players’ Association chief Matt Finnis said the interaction of fans with players could sometimes turn nasty.

“People seem to think there’s some veil of anonymity that they can find within social media and take advantage of that and engage in offensive behaviour which they probably wouldn’t have the bravery or the courage to do this face to face,” Finnis told the Nine Network.

AFL chief Andrew Demetriou said he was disgusted at the social media abuse aimed at Essendon’s Lonergan and Kyle Hardingham as well as senior AFL officials Jason Mifsud and Ali Fahour.

Mifsud is the AFL’s community engagement manager and Fahour is the league’s national multicultural manager.

“All of the commentary has been forwarded to the police, hopefully to pursue the perpetrator. That language has no place in this country,” Demetriou said last month.

AAP gab/a